In all
the discussion about displaying the Ten Commandments in the
Alabama courthouse, and now about displaying them in the Alabama
state capitol, has anyone asked the fundamental question: what
are the Ten Commandments? What is their philosophic meaning
and what kind of society do they imply?

Religious conservatives claim that the Ten Commandments
supplied the moral grounding for the establishment of America.
But is that even possible? Let’s put aside the historical
question of what sources the Founding Fathers, mostly Deists,
drew upon. The more important question is: can a nation of
freedom, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness be based
on the Ten Commandments?

Let’s look at the commandments. The wording differs among
the Catholic, Protestant, and Hebrew versions, but the content
is the same.

The first commandment is: “I am the Lord thy God.” As
first, it is the fundamental. It’s point is the assertion
that the individual is not an independent being with a right
to live his own life but the vassal of an invisible Lord. It
says, in effect, “I own you; you must obey me.”

Could America be based on this? Is such a servile idea even
consistent with what America represents: the land of the
free, independent,
sovereign individual who exists for his own sake? The question
is rhetorical.

The second commandment is an elaboration of the first, with
material about not serving any other god and not worshipping “graven
images” (idols). The Hebrew and Protestant versions threaten
heretics with reprisals against their descendants: “visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation . . .”

This primitive conception of law and morality—inherited
sin—flatly contradicts American values. Inherited guilt
is an impossible and degrading concept. How can you be guilty
for something you didn’t do? In philosophic terms, it represents
the doctrine of determinism, the idea that your choices count
for nothing, that factors beyond your control govern your “destiny.” This
is the denial of free will and therefore of self-responsibility.
A nation of self-made men cannot be squared with the ugly notion
that we are to be punished for the “sin” of our great-grandfather.

The numbering differs among the various versions, but the next
two or three commandments proscribe taking the Lord’s name “in
vain” and command dedication of a special day, the Sabbath,
in propitiating Him.

In sum, the first set of commandments order you to bow, fawn,
grovel, and obey. This is impossible to reconcile with the American
concept of a self-reliant, self-owning individual.
The middle commandment, “Honor thy father and mother,” is
manifestly unjust. Justice demands that you honor those who deserve
honor, who have earned it by their choices and actions. Your
particular father and mother may or may not deserve your honor—that
is for you to judge, on the basis of how they have treated you
and of a rational evaluation of their moral character.

To demand that Stalin’s daughter honor Stalin is not only
obscene, but also demonstrates the demand for mindlessness implicit
in the first set of commandments. You are commanded not to think
or judge, but to jettison your reason and simply obey.

The second set of commandments are unobjectionable but are
common to virtually every organized society—the commandments against
murder, theft, perjury, and the like. But what is objectionable
is the notion that there is no rational, earthly basis for refraining
from criminal behavior. Surely it is not only the not-to-be-questioned
decree of a supernatural punisher that makes acts such as theft
and murder wrong.

The basic philosophy of the Ten Commandments is the polar opposite
of the philosophy underlying the American ideal of a free society.
Freedom requires:

A metaphysics of the natural, not the supernatural; of free
will, not determinism; of the primary reality of the individual,
not
the tribe or the family.

An epistemology of individual thought, applying strict logic,
based on individual perception of reality, not obedience and
dogma.

An ethic of rational self-interest, to achieve chosen values,
for the purpose of individual happiness on this earth, not fearful,
dutiful appeasement of “a jealous God” who issues “commandments.”

Rather than the Ten Commandments, the actual grounding for
American values is that captured by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged: “If
I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man’s
only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a ‘moral
commandment’ is a contradiction in terms. The moral is
the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The
moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments.”

Dr. Harry Binswanger, author
of The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts, is a
member
of the board of directors of the Ayn Rand
Institute (ARI) and teaches philosophy at ARI’s Objectivist
Graduate Center.